SMS: General infos and Set Up

As an alternative to e-mail communication, you can also use aleno to automatically confirm reservations via SMS, for example.

Why SMS?

SMS messages reach your guest's attention sooner and faster. 
By activating the SMS function, time can be saved in operations, as only the mobile phone number needs to be noted when making a telephone reservation. 

Keep SMS short

By reducing the SMS text, the message is more likely to be viewed, read and understood. This also saves you costs.

Costs

SMS messages contain so-called segments, which generally contain 144 characters.
One segment is charged at an average of €0.09, which varies from country to country.  
Your actual costs per SMS segment differ per recipient country / telecom company:

Find here an overview of the costs of the segments in various countries.

Configuring SMS notifications

1. Activate the SMS feature

The SMS function can be activated independently in your settings. To do this, go to the SMS configuration under Settings and click on the "Activate SMS for this restaurant" box:

2. Create notification templates

As with the automatic e-mail dispatch, you also have templates for confirmation, reminders, cancelation, etc. available for SMS. You can customize your templates.
To do this, go to the SMS Settings.

Use placeholders (merge tags), e.g. for a personal salutation with the first name or for the date and time of the reservation. An example of a personal salutation with the first name is: "Hi ".

Due to the billing per 144 characters, we recommend keeping the SMS as short as possible so that no double costs are incurred even with longer names.

➡️ Find all our template suggestions here

3. Activate SMS for the desired shift

In each shift, you can individually select whether SMS messages are only sent for manually created reservations or also for online reservations.
An SMS reminder option can be activated separately.

Select the appropriate shift under Settings -> Shifts and activate the desired SMS. In the following example, only the automatic SMS  for a reservation reminder is activated.